As we get closer to the deadline for a deal on the nuclear negotiations, the question of “what now” is being asked by more and more people in Iran. The Rouhani government has bought itself time by turning the focus of the masses outwards to the nuclear negotiations, but sooner or later he will have to face the internal situation.

One of the deviant theories is based on the belief that the Labour House can be reformed and improved, and that the role of the vanguard workers is to be active within this institution to make it more radical. One of the theorists of this deviant tendency is Yadollah Khosravi (the former secretary of the oil refinery workers' union - also known as Khosroshahi among exiles). In his recent interview with Andishe-ye Jame-e magazine (Society's Thought, published in Iran) Khosravi expresses his views on the Labour House in the following way. The interviewer asks Yadollah Khosravi's opinion on the Labour House, based on the assumption that some of the labour-activist critics call the Labour House a "state" institution and not an independent one. Yadollah Khosravi replies that one of the faults of the Labour House is that it is like a political party. Because in its constitution issues like: "Support for the struggle of dispossessed peoples of the world in their struggle for their rights and freedom" and the "struggle against … racism and Zionism ..." has been posed.

Part 3

The perspectives for the workers' movement

Creating a modern capitalist state tied to the policies of the international banks and the world capitalist system means that foreign capital, and also the dollars of exiled Iranian capitalists, will have to flow into Iran. Foreign capitalists, who have for years been anticipating large investments in Iran's industries and, because of the lack of any guarantees by the regime for the security of their capital, have concentrated their capital outside Iran's borders, will in the next period enter Iran's undeveloped economic scene by importing spare parts, training technicians and technocrats, professional managers and so on. All along, one of the complaints of the “reformers” has been the shortage of professional managers in the factories. For example, in a recent interview with Radio Azadi, Massood Behnood complained about the non-professionalism of managers and gives this as one of the reasons for the failure of reforms.

The Iranian regime's position in response to the EU's turn

A day after the EU foreign ministers' Luxembourg decision [at the meeting of the heads of 15 European Union countries in Luxembourg on 17 June 2002, where the EU took steps to consolidating its relations with the Iranian regime, Editor’s note] all the media welcomed this step. Hamid-Reza Asefi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, and Mohammad-Javad Zarif, the Deputy Foreign Minister, expressed their satisfaction with the decision. This event alone reveals the reduction of internal differences within the regime over the new orientation towards world capitalism.

The meeting of the heads of 15 European Union countries in Luxembourg on 17 June 2002, which followed on from the recent position of European governments that emerged in a similar meeting a month earlier, has strengthened relations with Iran. Next September the Council of Ministers will begin discussions with Iran for the signing of an economic co-operation treaty (of course, depending on the European parliament ratifying it, which it probably will).

As these lines are being written hundreds of thousands of Iranians have poured onto the streets to celebrate the victory of Hassan Rouhani, in the presidential elections. Pictures of mass celebrations all over Iran are circulating the internet. This is an open defiance of Khamenei and the whole security apparatus of the regime which was dealt a humiliating defeat in the elections.